


It Never Bothered Her

by infaredlove



Series: Detective Aquamarine [1]
Category: Steven Universe (Cartoon), Steven Universe - Fandom
Genre: Abusive Parents, Aftermath of Violence, Alternate Universe - Human, Alternate Universe - Police, Aqua really needs therapy, Detectives, Implied/Referenced Alcohol Abuse/Alcoholism, Implied/Referenced Domestic Violence, Implied/Referenced Drug Use, Implied/Referenced Suicide, Murder, Other, Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder - PTSD, Unhealthy Coping Mechanisms, aquamarine is very sad, compartmentalizing problems, poor aqua, she's really trying but she just can't get it right
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-01-05
Updated: 2018-01-05
Packaged: 2019-02-28 14:28:24
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,847
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13273404
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/infaredlove/pseuds/infaredlove
Summary: Aquamarine is a detective for Homeworld city. She's known throughout the force as the cruelest, coldest crime solver around. Her mysterious nature and scar bring about rumors of her possible involvement with the death of her parents- but only she knows the truth.Or lack thereof.





	It Never Bothered Her

How long did it take to lose a human life? 

 

In a snap, everything can be gone. 

 

Of course, Aquamarine knew this. She knew this quite clearly. She had seen this before, three or four dozen times. When you work for the city police department as a detective, you get used to seeing dead people. Not as if it had bothered her before.

 

Sure, the first couple of times were hard. Of course, it reminded her of her parents, just like the scar that laid upon her cheek, shaped like a teardrop. She chose not to think about it, and instead, did her job, as she was supposed to do. 

 

Aquamarine had joined the department directly out of the academy. She had graduated with an average GPA from a state college, but she ranked at the top of her class in her training. Physically, she was outstanding. Her 1.5-mile run was a light jog, she excelled in the body drag, and she could scale a 6-foot wall like it was nobody's business. Her ability to disarm a possible perpetrator was impressive at the very least, and she could shoot a target from about 15 yards away. Some did not take her seriously due to her stature (she was only 4'11"), but no one could argue that she possessed extreme strength in her little body. 

Her physical fitness paled in comparison to how she handled the work she was given. Aquamarine could ramble off laws as though they were the lyrics to the latest pop song, she knew every procedure in the handbook, and her mock-arrests were as smooth as butter on warm bread. She had all the workings of a perfect police officer, but she took it a step further. 

 

Aquamarine was heading straight for the top. Her goal was to become a detective, and a fine detective at that. After five years of working as an exemplary police officer, helping bring down drug lords, sex trafficking rings, and murderers, Aquamarine was granted the promotion to become a detective. She was the smallest and youngest in the group of detectives that Homeworld City used to solve their crimes, but she was quickly becoming the best. Of course, this was overshadowed by her less-than-kind reputation. Her coworker, a police officer by the name of Topaz, said that she was cruel in her best mood. 

 

_Aquamarine had slipped into the room where two young women sat, side by side, holding onto each other for comfort. The tall one to the left never removed her sunglasses, which the detective thought was a sign of her being a complete jackass. Beside her, the skinny twig of a girl cried hysterically against the arm of her stoic friend. 'What a sorry bunch.' She thought as she stood across from them._

_"Did... did Biggs suffer?" The skinny one choked out._

_"Who?" Aqua replied._

_"Biggs," Sunglasses answered. "That was her nickname. Did she suffer?"_

_Aquamarine nodded. "Oh, very much. She sustained blunt force trauma to her face, neck, and chest. Whoever killed her used a metal object- presumably, an adult-sized baseball bat- to beat her to death."_

_Skinny sobbed harder. Sunglasses stared at her from behind her shiny glass. "Well, she was probably unconscious for most of it..."_

_"No. There was no trauma to her head until she died. That was actually what killed her- they bashed her skull in." Aqua said, her mind focusing on the half of a face she had once seen. 'Maybe it was him,' she thought. 'He was particularly fond of bashing skulls.'_

_"Why would you tell us that?" Skinny yelled, in anger._

_The detective pondered for a while, letting out a drawn-out sigh. "You would only mourn if I didn't. If you get angry, it fuels you to want to solve the case. I cant do it alone. If you don't want the case solved, it'll never happen. If you're angry,_ you'll _want to do everything you can to take that anger out on whoever killed your friend. You'll still be angry at me," She opened the door, her back turned to them. "But quite frankly, I couldn't give any less of a damn what you think of me. I'll be back when you stop crying."_

 

A few weeks later, the case had been solved. No matter what anyone said about her lack of empathy, they could never complain about how quickly she closed cases. Murderers were almost always found within two weeks when Aqua was assigned to the case. She was amazing. Her work was second to none.

 

However, the cold and quiet detective never told her intentions to anyone. No one knew why she was so determined. No one understood why she tried so damn hard to solve these cases, even though it was evident that she barely cared about the families of those who lost their friends, children, or lovers in these murders.

 

The only cases that seemed to peek her interest were when a parent was murdered. Then, suddenly, her demeanor changed

 

_"You said that your mother died of an apparent suicide?" Aquamarine asked the girl sitting in front of her, her eyes squinting at the papers on the desk. "But you don't believe it was, do you?"_

_"No. I think someone murdered her. When I found her..." The young girl trailed off, looking away. She tried not to cry in front of the detective, for she had heard the rumors._

_"You found her? That must have been so awful for you." She replied, softly. Her tone never became cruel. The police watching the interview had been shocked. Aquamarine was thinking of him again. She saw his face every time she closed her eyes._

_"Yeah. When I found her, I saw that she had used a gun... but my mom hated guns. She would have never owned one, let alone killed herself with one. Someone had to frame it, I know they did... everyone keeps saying I'm crazy."_

_"No, you aren't crazy. You're a smart kid. And you know what? I believe you. I'm going to make sure we find out what happened to your mother, and you're going to help me. Okay?"_

_The girl nodded slowly._

 

After the framed suicide-murder had been brought into the light, rumors began to circle about the young detective. Some believed that she was using the case to make up for the loss of her own parents. Others believed that she had something to do with the death of her parents. More rumors came about surrounding the tear-shaped scar that laid upon her cheek, saying she sustained it from a fight that ultimately killed her family. No one, of course, knew if these rumors were true. Aquamarine certainly would not tell them. 

 

The only one who could know the truth was herself. Everyone else who had known was dead, seldom for one person. The person was the reason why she went to work every day, completing cases, connecting the dots. She needed to know. She had to know.

 

Some nights, she would lay in her one bedroom apartment, staring at the window that looked out into the city. She remembered those lights. She remembered the screams. 

 

_"Mom?" The teen called into the hallway of their back window apartment building. The lights had since gone off, due to the unpaid electric bill. In fact, she couldn't remember the last time she had electricity in her dingy room. She used a flashlight and a battery-operated lantern to read and navigate the hallways, carefully avoiding the misplaced floorboards by dragging her hand against the wall. She could gauge where she was by the shape and size of the holes that littered the walls. "Mom...?" She carefully approached the room at the end of the hall, where the moonlight pooled out from underneath the threshold. That meant the curtains had been drawn- which was unlike her parents. Her father had instructed that the windows were always curtained so that no one knew they were the family that had moved in. It was the same reason why Aqua had to take the fire escape instead of leaving through the front door._

_"Mom? Should I get the car?" She asked. She wondered if something had gone wrong, such as one of their clients breaking in to find drugs. Or worse, if the police had found them._

_"Aqua..." A singsong voice called back, though it was not the familiar voice of her mother._

_"Who the hell are you?" The firey teen yelled back. "If you're looking for drugs, they aren't here, dipshit."_

_"Aqua... Aqua..."_

_Irritated, the girl kicked the door open. Her eyes were immediately drawn to the crumpled bodies on the floor, of what once must have been her parents. They were too hacked to be recognized, deep red blood smeared across the floor. The person who had come to kill them- or so, she thought had killed them- was holding what looked to be an ax. How cliche, she had thought, in her shock. Aqua thought about how the blood would drip into the apartment below them through the wide floorboards. She thought, "Oh, I'm going to have to clean that before mom and dad see'. She could feel nothing in her hands, or in her toes, though she tried to move. Or at least, she thought she did. She could feel a hand upon her chin, grasping her roughly, like her father would. She remembered how much it hurt when the knife touched her face._

 

Aqua always came out of those memories in fits of pain, causing her to cry out into the empty room, tears welled in her eyes. "Mom!" She called, her hands grabbing at her cheeks. But of course, her mom was never there. It caused her to cry more, and eventually, she would have no more tears left. The woman would rise from her bed, going to the bathroom and cleaning her face. She would take a few shots, let the heat settle in her stomach, and pass out in bed. That was her life, every night, since she had gotten out of the hospital. 

 

She had since come to terms with her parents' death. Her heart no longer mourned their loss, there was only numbness now. Despite their involvement with drugs, her parents had not been all that bad. She never hated them. 

The only thing she had not come to terms with was the fact that she never found out who killed them and left her face so disfigured. As he returned in her dreams, she found herself more and more obsessed with the snippets of face she could see. She had it drawn, scribbled on canvas, printer paper, newspaper, napkins, anything. Anytime she remembered a scene, a moment, it would be drawn and hung on the wall in her living room. No one ever came over, so no one ever saw her obsession. 

 

She kept it under wraps. No one could ever know what happened. No one would ever know. Such was the way of Aquamarine. 

 

Not like it had ever bothered her before.

 

**Author's Note:**

> I really wanted to write this fic, but im not sure if ill continue into a series. It depends on how people react. I know it isnt what I usually write, but I really love my detective Aqua. 
> 
> I also wanted to put more Aqua content out for a sweet friend of mine! This is for you, mama mantis.


End file.
